Project lead
Fatima Mukaddam, M.A.
Abstract
Many former European colonies in Africa adopted a plurality of legal systems as a mechanism to bridge the gap between customary, religious and state laws; South Africa is no different. The South African Constitution, the supreme law of the country awards all citizens freedom of religion and the practice of it. Whilst this sounds suitable in theory, the pluralistic nature of the South African judiciary creates a range of complex legal issues. This project seeks to uncover the socio-political context of women’s access to equality and rights in Islamic marriages in South Africa. The research is inter-disciplinary and investigates legal pluralism in South Africa and how it affects Muslim women’s access to marital rights and justice. At a political level, the research aims to understand what governmental and non-governmental institutions are doing to alleviate the plight of Muslim women. At a sociological level, the research aims to uncover the manner in which Muslim women in Cape Town, South Africa, practice marriage. These two main threads will contribute to the discussion of legal pluralism in South Africa and its complications. A discussion of legal pluralism cannot be had without understanding the role of secularism and religious liberty, as both of these theories have contributed to legal pluralism in both direct and indirect manners. This research will adopt a qualitative approach, use semi-structured interviews and textual analysis in order to gain a holistic understanding about how laws or lack thereof shape the experiences of women. The project will make specific reference to the proposed Muslim Marriages Bill. It will discuss whether this Bill will in fact give women access to equality and rights, or if the Bill will make no difference to their experiences and perhaps further subjugate them
Discipline
Political Science
Supervision
Prof. Dr. Antonius Liedhegener (University of Lucerne) and PD. Dr. Elham Manea (University of Zurich)
Further Information
https://www.unilu.ch/en/faculties/faculty-of-humanities-and-social-sciences/institutes-departements-and-research-centres/graduate-school-of-humanities-and-social-sciences-at-the-university-of-lucerne-gsl/doctoral-students-alumni/doctoral-students/fatima-mukaddam/
